Sosa will be on time

Baker applauds star's approach

MESA, Ariz. — Sammy Sosa called Dusty Baker on Sunday night to let him know he was going to arrive in camp Wednesday, the first day of workouts for all position players.

After repeatedly saying at the Cubs Convention that he planned to make his traditionally late arrival, Sosa has changed his mind in an apparent effort to show he's a team player.

"He's always serious," Baker said. "He's trying. If the guy is trying, you have to give him a chance. He's trying to make some amends for whatever has happened in the past, to leave it in the past. He's trying to be a better teammate. Not to say he wasn't before, which I don't know. He's trying to help this team start off on the right foot, and he knows a big part of it is attitude.

"Quite frankly, you get tired of hearing bad stuff about yourself all the time when you know you're a good person. I never heard anyone say he's a bad person. We all have faults. After a while, you just want some closure on things in the past. I'm not saying it won't come up again. It's not to say it's permanent. You have to start with temporary before you get to permanent."

Sosa insisted last month that he liked to arrive after his teammates because he's "superstitious" and pointed to his overall numbers as proof that coming in late hadn't affected his performance. But his tardiness rankled some Cubs insiders, who believed Sosa was showing up his teammates, putting self-interest above the team concept.

Baker, who gave Barry Bonds plenty of space in San Francisco, said Sosa is able to do whatever he wants because he has the stature to do so.

"When you're putting butts in the seats and you're making $18 million to $20 million, you have more power probably than anyone in the organization," he said. "The big thing is how you get along with your teammates, what kind of teammate you are. A superstar sets the tone good, and that makes my job easier because then, hopefully, he'll take five, six, seven, eight, nine players with him, like I saw Hank Aaron do. Whoever managed Hank Aaron had a very easy job because Hank had about seven or eight of us young guys in line.

"If a superstar sets an adverse tone, it's up to the team to let a superstar go off on his own and play and do his thing. But you remain separate from that and say, `OK, we'll do it in spite of whatever shortcomings he may have.' You have to do that, too, sometimes. Sometimes you have to separate. Sometimes you have to congregate. The best way is to congregate, but it's not always like that."

Baker said he's not looking for Sosa to take on a leadership role with the team.

"You can't make anybody a leader," he said. "Just because you're the best player, you hope that that person is a leader, but that doesn't necessarily make him a leader. That just means God gave him the most ability. If that were the case, everyone who had the most ability would be the leader. That's not the case.

"Most of the time your leader is a person who's not trying to lead--it's the person people gravitate toward naturally. . . . Barry wasn't a leader on our team over there. We had quite a few leaders. But when the game starts and when the game is on the line, then it's like, `Come on, Barry.' That makes you the best player. That's doesn't make you the leader."

Baker handled the enigmatic Bonds without many problems and should be comfortable handling Sosa. He pointed out that no two superstars are the same and shouldn't be treated the same. Baker laughed about the Bonds-Sosa squabble of last spring, when the two traded barbs in the media only to have a celebrated reunion before a Cactus League game in Mesa.

"They fought pretty good last year," Baker said. "As I recall, I saw a hugfest out at HoHoKam Park. I was going to go join 'em because I'm from San Francisco--peace and love, man. Everybody was hugging out there. It was quite hilarious to me. Wish I had a camera. There were all hugging, about eight brothers out there hugging. I was just sitting there laughing."

Was it a sincere hugfest or a show for the mini-cams? Baker wouldn't give his opinion.

"I've seen a lot of peace talks begin with hugging and shaking hands," Baker said.